Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
After five years in business, Alexa Chung is shutting down her namesake label. Chung took to her Instagram on Thursday to share with fans that she has been winding down operations at her fashion line for the past few months, citing challenging retail conditions as the reason for the closure.
"The decision to close was not taken lightly, not least because I am so grateful for the passion and creativity the team at AlexaChung brought with them every day and the faith everyone involved had in this endeavor," added Chung on social media.
Chung — the perennial It girl who easily translates her witty charm into an expertly styled trench coat or graphic T-Shirt — spent over a decade fronting campaigns and collaborating on capsule collections before launching her eponymous label in 2017. Having mastered the art of influencing before it became an actual profession, Chung was a welcome addition to the large pool of contemporary designers. Her collections clashed masculine and feminine tailoring and introduced a mellow-chic aesthetic. Chung found fans in retailers, with her clothes stocked in stores across the U.K., U.S., Europe and Asia, including Net-a-porter, Mytheresa, The Webster, Bergdorf Goodman, Collette and Isetan.
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But it's not easy for a small independent wholesale-based label to swim alongside some of the more prominent players in the competitive contemporary market. Plus, the pandemic presented more challenges. According to WWD, Chung's reluctance to transform into a fully direct-to-consumer business made it difficult for the company to survive Covid-19.
"The experience of setting up and being at the helm of my own company has been rewarding and frequently joyful, but the last couple of years have been challenging for small independent businesses and ours is no exception," Chung shared on Instagram. "Needless to say my enthusiasm for fashion remains undimmed."
Chung's current spring collection, and her latest Barbour outerwear collaboration, will continue to be sold at full price through the brand's e-commerce site until March 31, according to WWD. While this is the last call for Chung's cheeky knits, we still expect to see her all over the fashion scene, perhaps on a denim label next to another cool brand or on the small screen as mini skirt-wearing TV host.
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